10 Essential Thoughts to Help Us Understand How to Help Children with Special Needs: Josh's Story - Part 2

The Rubin family

Last week I posted part one of a talk by Nancy mother of Josh, a child with medical and emotional issues, and learning disabilities. She spoke to our synagogue community  about what it is like to be Josh and how his lack of a social life is one of the most challenging pieces of his world to navigate. She explained, 
Most children's weekends are packed with birthday parties, play dates and sleepovers.  Children with disabilities have very few of these.  I can count on one hand the number of birthday parties, play dates and sleepovers combined that Josh has been invited to in the last several years.  

Nancy  also talked about how parents have to be resilient when these painful situations arise. 

 ...rather than wallow in our pain, we as parents of children with special needs, stand up, brush ourselves off, and think about what we can do to make our child's life as happy as it can be.  

At the end of last week's  post Nancy posed a crucial question.

So what can we do to be sure all of our kids feel part of our community?

In this week's post, Nancy suggests 10 ways we and our children can be involved in making the world for children with special needs a little bit easier and a little bit happier.

"Josh's Story"- A Mother's Brave Account of Her Son's Challenges, Growing Up with Special Needs

Josh on Vacation

A few months ago I wrote a post called Do you feel that  life's unfair? I received a beautiful email from Nancy telling me about the 12 years of challenges and joy her family has had raising Josh, a child with special needs. 

February is Jewish Disabilities Awareness month. This year in our synagogue (Shul) Nancy spoke to the community about what it is like for their family and what we as individuals and as a community as a whole can do to be more inclusive. 

I will be publishing it in two parts. This post tells the compelling story of Josh's life so far. In the next post I'll share Nancy's ten practical suggestions for actions we can all take to help children with special needs feel more included in our communities.

Here is her powerful story.